single room occupancy

As the father of San Francisco’s inclusionary-housing ordinance, which requires developers to build below-market-rate apartments or pay a hefty fee, mayoral candidate Mark Leno calls for mandatory higher percentages for developers building on transit corridors or city-owned parcels. He also has vowed to "end street homelessness by 2020," in part by filling vacancies in private, single-room occupancy hotels. First in a series analyzing the mayoral candidates' records and pledges on housing and homelessness.

Last week on his blog, Beyond Chron, Tenderloin Housing Clinic Executive Director Randy Shaw belatedly referred to my Fall 2017 Public Press cover story about vacancies in single-room occupancy hotels as "extremely misleading" and "false." I was disappointed, but not surprised. And I am not alone.

Master leasing of single-room occupancy hotels in San Francisco has housed thousands of homeless people — and done so in hotels that are, by and large, a huge improvement over those of a generation ago. But hings could be better.

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